Jamie

...now browsing by category

Jamie’s Thoughts

My new favorite pastime

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

At the start of the New Year, I made a non-verbal resolution to myself that so many others proclaim from the rooftop. I am going to get in shape! So many people look at me and tell me, “You don’t need to exercise!” Let me just say; just because I’m skinny does not mean that I am in good shape. Hear me when I say this: I am not looking to lose weight. I am looking to strengthen, tone, and gain more energy. I’m tired of feeling tired, and tired of feeling weak. I’m no wimp, but I’d love to be able to bench press more than I could now. And I have no idea what that would be, by the way.

I have no gym membership, nor do I intend to get one. It may have it’s benefits, but I prefer walking through my neighborhood than walking on a treadmill. There are days when a treadmill is great, but I prefer the fresh air. I’m still working at getting myself up early so I can take daily morning walks. The cold snap we had prevented me from starting this, and since then, my latest excuse is that my lazy butt can’t seem to get itself out of bed. I enjoy taking long walks, and I miss the days when I returned home from tour and had a couple months of rest. I would awake each morning and go to a park and take a walk for about an hour or more. Unfortunately, I don’t have an hour or more to spare each morning, so I’ll work on trying to get maybe 30 minutes or so.

Even though I haven’t gotten myself into walking again, I haven’t been a total failure. About a year ago, I discovered yoga in Comcast’s On Demand section. There was a section entitled exercisetv. I explored the yoga section and found a couple workouts that I enjoyed. They kicked my butt, but the more I did them, the easier it became. I explored different workouts, and grew to love yoga more. I liked the way I felt when I finished: relaxed, stretched out, and energized. I began to understand what it meant to sink deeper into the poses, and the crazy yoga lingo began to make more sense.

I know there is often the weird touchy feely spiritual your legs are like tree roots rooted into the ground sort of thing with yoga. I do appreciate feeling more connected with my breath, but don’t quite buy into the whole spiritual aspect of it. I do it because it feels good for my body, and it does help me relax and feel more centered.

But, as always happens, I struggled to keep up with it. I would sleep in later, say I was going to do my workout later that day, and of course that time would never come. Some of my favorite workouts disappeared from the On Demand section, and were no longer available for free. And then, we began looking for a house, and then packing up all of our belongings in our small duplex. Before I knew it, there was literally not a space big enough for me to do my downward facing dog. So, for a month or more, I did no yoga. And my body was sad.

Now, we’re settled into our new place, and although we’re still drowning in boxes, there is still a large, open space in the middle of the living room. So I began my yoga practice anew. I explored a few of the On Demand workouts, but wasn’t too impressed with what I found. Instead, I am now hooked on a yoga website. Yogatic has tons of videos, and also a list of the poses and the many benefits that each provides. Esther Eckhart, the Dutch Irishwoman with the cute accent, walks you through step by step explanations of each workout and pose. And everything on the website is FREE!

So this past week, I have gotten myself up every day and done about 20 minutes of yoga. I start with some warm up stretches, and then some sun salutations. Some of it is difficult, while some of it just feels really good. I’m usually out of breath when I’m done, but I feel energized. That “there’s no way I can move out of this bed” feeling that was there 20 minutes ago is gone. I feel awake, energized and ready to go. Another thing I have noticed is that as I go throughout the day, I feel more awake. There is still that feeling of really wanting a nap some days, but overall, I feel better. So I’m going to try my hardest to keep it up. Something is working.

Now, this morning I didn’t do any yoga with the exception of a little bit of stretching. It is Sunday. I need a day off. Plus my throat hurts a bit. But I will do my best to keep this up.

Posted in Jamie | No Responses »
Tags: Proud of Me, Yoga

I think I’m gonna like this place

Monday, January 25th, 2010

I just took my first walk in my new neighborhood. Well, technically third walk, but the first one was a morning walk in the bitter cold snap we had, and I didn’t make it too far before turning around and retreating into the heat of my home. The second was at night, and again, I didn’t venture far, as it was dark and I didn’t want to get lost. I am still learning the streets.

This morning I took a nice long walk, exploring the new streets where I live. I really like this place. I love the trees that cover almost every corner. I love the way that each house looks unique. Some neighborhoods are what I call “cookie cutter” neighborhoods, where there are about three or four house designs and they repeat throughout the neighborhood. When I was younger, I used to say that I never wanted to live in one of those neighborhoods. I thought they were boring. Well, then I grew up and realized that when you’re looking for a house and have a certain budget to stick to, those cookie cutter houses don’t look so bad. Initially, Drew and I were considering one of those cookie cutter neighborhoods. It was close to our budget (we would have had to do some negotiating) and the interior of the houses were really nice. But, in the end, God provided an awesome house in a non cookie cutter neighborhood. And as I walked through it this morning, I had to thank Him for that.

In our old neighborhood, we were surrounded by disrespectful kids that left bikes and toys in our driveway and wouldn’t move out of the way when you were trying to get home at night. So far, every kid that I’ve experienced in the new neighborhood has been respectful and pleasant. As I walked this morning, a bus was arriving to pick up the middle school kids that were waiting. Often, when I see groups of adolescent kids, it reminds me of my adolescent days and some of the jerky boys that would make fun of me. Some days I want to turn around and walk the other day. Then I remind myself that they are 12 year olds and I am a 30 year old woman. Today, some of them were talking loudly as they were climbing on the bus, and I realized they were motioning in my direction. My instinct was that they were being cruel and making fun of me over something (why do some memories stick with us so strongly?) but then I realized they were commenting on my sweatshirt. I had pulled on my zip up sweatshirt that has Australia emblazoned across the front. It was the souvenir I proudly acquired on my trip there. I glanced across the street and noticed one of the boys had a shirt on that looked identical. The others were proclaiming to him, “Dude! It SAYS Australia!” One of them yelled across the street at me, “Doesn’t your shirt say Australia?” I said, “Yes it does…” and they laughed and told the other boy, “You have a twin!” and pointed him out to me. I smiled, flashed a thumbs up, and kept walking. It was refreshing to not have boys making some smart remark towards me.

As I kept walking, I encountered another young girl with her bag strapped to her, on her way to the bus stop. She smiled at me with a big, beautiful smile and greeted me. Oh, how lovely to have civil neighbors, who know how to act right.

So now I’m back home, in my cozy little home with boxes surrounding me. I’m trying to not get caught up in all that still needs to be done, and instead be in the current moment. If I get overwhelmed with the to do list, I should instead think of all that’s been crossed off. Each day we accomplish a little bit more, and that’s a good feeling.

I sat on the couch last night while Drew was making dinner, and it hit me. I’m in my new home with my husband. Life is good. A little later that night, as we got ready for bed, I tried to push Drew over and wrestle with him. I should have learned by now that that never goes well for me. He practically body slammed me on the bed, and proceeded to try to zerbert me. I screamed, laughed hysterically, and finally got him to stop. But in those goofy little moments, especially in those goofy little moments, life is really good.

Posted in Jamie | 1 Response »
Tags: Gratitude